The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-10-20
AMERICAN SALT.
CHARLES ELLIS.

/ ne SeOlOBlete say tnat the OLDEST lonO
on earth was low chain of hills (the
Laurentianl that has for unknown ages
been running across the North Amer
lean continent along the st. Law
renee valley and through the Lake
Superior region out into the coun-
try Of the Rocky mountains. Whether
the Oldest land or not, they were the
Oldest on this continent, and formed its
head and shoulders, 20 to speak. As the
continent grew sn arm has extended to
the East in Maine and the lower prov.
inces; aleg grown to the South and West,
that is the Appalachian chain Of noun
tains. To the West the Rockies became
another leg. Between them rolled
the old Devonian ocean, whose
intensely salt waters broke along their
northern limits against the granite walls
of the Laurentian hills. In the lapse of
time that ocean, land-locked by upheav-
ais, evaporated and left its bed made up
for coming man with mattress of salt
hundreds of feet in thickness. The bed
is large one, and since it was deposited
it has been unused up" good deal by
earthquakes, upheavals and depressions,
but It can be found all across the country
If we 60 deep enough. The water from
the chain of our great lakes has long been
in contact with that bed of salt by perco-
lation through porous rock, and becom-
ing saturated with the salt has worked
its way so near the surface that syphon
springs have been formed in times of
freshets, and hence we have had our salt
springs. Noticing these, the enterprising
Yankees have found their source and
made the old Devonian bed pay tribute
to humanity.
For many years Syracuse was thought
to be the centre Of the salt-field, but later
Investigations indicate Lower Michigan
as the favorite of Providence in the
saline deposits. In twenty-six years the
salt industry of Michigan has far sur
passed that Of New York in q century.
Its product last year was over 100000
barrels.
A stranger entering Saginaw valley by
water will wonder what are the curious
pyramidal houses that stand about every
sawmill, and rise from fifty to seventy
feet. They are the drill. l.houses or towers
one 10 . hole from 700 to 1000 feet, or
more, in depth. If you examine moro
closely you will find water issuing from
them as clear as diamonds and as salt as
Lots wife's lips ever were. The water
Is delivered into huge tanks that stand
on trestle work fifteen or twenty feet high.
1t contains small quantity Of iron in
solution. In the tanks it Is "limed" and
the iron Is thrown down. When 1t has
settled there 1t Is drawn into other large
settlers" in the salt block. There It
comes in contact with steam pipes that
heat 1t to 1750F. That brings It to the
point Of saturation in twenty -four hours
and then it is drawn into "the grainers,"
where other steam pipes raise the
temperature to 1852, and all over the sur
face Of the brine the last particles of
water depart in vapor and the chlorine
and soda marry and materialize In crys-
tails of salt that fall to the bottom. That
process goes on for twenty-four hours,
and the brine is about all turned into
salt The salt is then gifted" to tables
above the settlers, drains, and is wheeled
to the "bins," where It lies fourteen
days, and is then ready to pack. The
grainers are refilled and the process is
repeated daily the season round.
Lifting the salt is the unique part of
the work. A gang Of eight men will
handle the salt Of steam block making
$4,000 barrels season, and every pound
OF 1t has to be lifted out of brine stand
ing at 1852 F. You will naturally
infer that that must be warm work.
1t 10 In summer the sir 10 so
warm in the block that the evaporation
from settlers and grainers passes up out
OF the ventilat0rs without condensing
into fog, but In winter the fog becomes so
thick that you cannot distinguish objects
only few feet away. But where you
can see, what takes place is suggestive of
future punishment. The men are naked to
the waist on their legs will be old pants or
drawers-often the latter and red; on
their feet old shoes or boots with the
legs cut of. Each man has q long
handled hoe or rake and shovel to pull :
the salt together and shovel 1t out.
Wherever the brine splashes against the
skin 1t burns The men have q limited
time In which to lift the salt and the
work has to be pushed. The perspira.
tion stands in beads upon them or
trickles In little streams down their faces
and bodies. But they are as healthy as
pine knots and will dress and 20 out of
that hot room into the cold air of winter
without suffering from the change of
temperature.
A good salt we'll viii yield from 400
to 600 barrels of brine daily, and II
takes four barrels Of brine to make one
OF salt Brine that 10 popularity said to
be 100 per cent. salt" is, In point Of
fact, only fraction over TWENTY-FIVE per
cent. salt. Some of the mills at Saginaw
have - many - dozen wells and capacity
!or several hundred thousand barrels,
Owing to the low prices, however, now
prevailing very few of the blocks are
run to full capacity. The largest pro-
duct OF any one mill last year was that
OF r. G. Peters-1o7, 900 barrels. The
dimensions Of Q 60, 900 barrel block are
building 206 feet long, ninety feet wide,
forty feet high under the ridge and SIX
teen-feet posts; two settlers 40 feet
long, nine wide and four deep; four
grainers 100 feet long, ten wide and
eighteen inches deep. II has 8,7lA feet
OF galvanized pipe four inches In diane
ter. Other pipes make total OF
1000 feet. There are fourteen bins
and packing-room, "COPPER" shop and
salt shed for storing, the latter
. roof covering dock 2S0x16O feet. The
cost OF such plant, including b0ilers.
Pumping-engines and all, ,is about 10000.
To run Il requires twenty -ave men, whose
wages average q rs per day. The wear
and lear Of ths machlnery & : eood desi.
The pipes rust out and tie wells have 10
be cleaned (torpedoed) once or twice :
year Thus Il can b. seen that when SALT
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